Dangerous Games Remake
by Aura
Summary: A rewrite of my original fan fiction Dangerous Games. Sesshomaru x Kagome fiction. The unlikely pair find themselves dropped together into a pit and then further into a dangerous plot by Naraku. Chapter 9 added. Rated M for some content.
1. One: Into the Pit

_May 03 2007: Author's Notes_: Rewriting and editing out this story after I took it down. There was a lot I wanted to work on and edit out from where I started a long time ago now (nearly two years) from the original fiction some time ago. The title is going to be the same but I want to thank my fans cause if a lot of people hadn't contacted me after I removed the original then I probably wouldn't have gone through with writing this fiction.

_Disclaimer: _Inuyasha is owned by Rumiko Takahashi and this fan fiction is a -fan- made project is a non-profit project. This will be the only disclaimer I put in the story as it's the first chapter.

**Chapter One:** _Into the Pit or Earth Diving_

Amber eyes deceptively reflected the equally green light emanating from the sharp claws at the end of Sesshomaru's long fingers, the glow a malicious hint of the poisons he could call to his control. The silver haired demon-lord holding down his half-demon brother with his long tail and letting his glare speak for him. The insolent whelp would pay for his insults with blood as far as the elder brother was concerned.

"Inuyasha!"

The scream cut into evening air as Kagome released the taunt string of her bow to release the arrow that she'd aimed at his back, the holy energy leaving a silver streak in the air as it let out a short whistle before slamming into the demon lord's a little off the mark she was going for. The magic dealt far more damage than the shaft itself as it dug deeply into his right shoulder blade, staining the pure white of his kimono a deeper crimson and filling in the lines of the cherry blossom pattern of his house. His tail's grip loosening some as his body shuttered against his will from the surprisingly strong blow.

"Stay out of this!" Inuyasha yelled toward the area where Kagome had shot from, clawing at Sesshomaru and using his dodge to leap completely free of the grasp that had been holding him previously. "Stupid girl."

"Well should I just let you get killed next time!" Kagome screamed back in anger at the insensitivity toward her saving him. "I outta…"

She was interrupted by a blur of movement as the still somehow pristine demon lord seemed to teleport into place in front of her. Despite the wound that she had caused he was no less intimidating - and more than likely really pissed off at her having caused it. His face regarded her with little emotion unless she wanted to include something akin to the distaste one has if they step in something they rather wouldn't.

"However rare the occasion might be, Inuyasha is correct in this case." he explained to her coolly, lifting his still glowing hand. "Interference by such a lesser creature as yourself will not be tolerated."

Then he was gone again as Inuyasha took a strike at him, the half-demon cursing as he overbalanced and nearly stumbled over onto his face when his target was gone so fluidly. Kagome jumped back herself to avoid being dissected by the wavering Tessaiga and then narrowed her eyes on her target, notching a second arrow before the bow was snapped in half by the golden line of energy that was akin to a whip - one of the many attacks amongst Sesshomaru's arsenal.

The condensed line of acidic energy cut apart her weapon like butter and knocked her away from the battle as if she were nothing more than a doll that had frustrated it's much larger child. The high-schooler's thin frame crumpling after she slammed harshly into the earth several yard's from where she'd started.

"This is between us you asshole!" Inuyasha screamed at his brother, grass flickering away from his sudden movement as he leapt into the air and came down toward his brother with a sudden vengeance he hadn't held in their battle a moment prior.

He ended up just knocking a lot of dirt and grime into the air as a small crater came into being where the demon lord had been until a split second earlier. Sesshomaru had escaped again, with the usual speed and grace that he commanded, settling onto the ground near where the girl had started to stir from her harsh meeting with the ground.

The demon had to give the girl credit - most humans wouldn't be getting up from such a beating at all - more or less as fast as this one was recovering. Nonetheless she wasn't what Sesshomaru had to be concerned with, weaponless there was nothing else she could do to him, he faced off with his brother instead, one of his clawed hands raising to grasp the Tenseiga and pull it from his belt.

The second leap was a predictable move from his less intelligent sibling and he blocked the strike with ease, sparks flying from where the two blades met each other and pulsed with power that curled around both of the swords. He managed to press Inuyasha backward and force him to jump backward, settling his blade in the earth long enough to send his whip at the half-demon while he recovered from the last attack.

Then Kagome did something rather rash.

Sesshomaru let out a long hiss of pain as the holy magic of the arrow flared and he felt the shaft twist in the muscles of his back, burning him from the inside. He was turning to strike at her with poisoned claws when the ground shuffled beneath them. It was giving way and with the holy energy she was pouring into him he wouldn't have the reflex's to leap free of the pit that was forming beneath them.

He didn't get a chance to strike at her before the ground finished falling out and they fell into the hole that had appeared so suddenly. Falling into the shadows of some lost underground maze long forgotten by those that were foolish enough to battle above the old passages.

**End Chapter**

Okay…well I like my rewrite of things so far. It's short but it was originally much shorter than this. Scary as that is. I figure I'm gonna do a lot of little stuff to better describe and extend things out past what they used to be. I prefer the way I write now much more compared to how I did even just a couple years ago. Which is good I guess - marked improvement and all. Okay I'm gonna stop babbling now and I'll be happy to hear reviews and what not.

_-Aura_

P.S. If you are going to flame and not give creative criticism (there is a difference) then just don't review - at least don't expect to met with anything more than mockery - most likely I'll just ignore you completely.


	2. Two: Painful Realizations

_Author's Notes: _Just moving it on and updating the next chapter of my story!

_Previous Chapter Quick Summary: _Sesshomaru and Inuyasha battling was interrupted by Kagome when she thought Inuyasha was in trouble. The battle ended with Sesshomaru falling into a pit with the young priestess.

**Chapter Two:** _Painful Realizations or Spiraling into Darkness_

_"Did it rain last night? It's really damp." _Kagome thought wearily, her body starting to come back to consciousness at a snails pace. _"Something is really heavy…did something fall on me while I was sleeping?"_

Then in a flash memories of the battle were coming back to her. The silky red of Inuyasha's fire rat kimono being crushed by the curling of the snake-boa-like fluff of Sesshomaru's tail. A streak of white light in the air and the spreading sanguine over ivory. Sudden pain and weightlessness before slight unconsciousness…she remembered twisting the arrow in Sesshomaru's back and him moving to strike her.

She opened her eyes to pure darkness and tried to move just to send flashes of light that weren't there into her weary consciousness…it wavering at the painful attempt to give her muscles motion. A lot of her body was stiff and she stayed still in a fight to keep from passing out again - that would be the last thing she would need.

As she waited for her brain to calm down from her attempt to move she frowned deeply at the fact that she was in a place where she couldn't see something if it was pressed to her face. Then she noticed that there was something sticky on her skin, she started small and shifted her fingers feeling something flaking from them as she moved them. She knew it was on more than just her hands, she could feel it over quite a lot of her skin. She felt soft dirt beneath her and was thankful at least that it wasn't stone or concrete that had broken however long of a fall had dropped her into this lightless place.

_"Something is on top of me…wait…I didn't get buried alive did I?" _Kagome blinked a few times and then frantically raised her arm to try to test that heart-stopping theory. Her reaching hand grasped fabric and she sighed in relief. _"No…not dirt."_

She felt around further, feeling soft hair and the smooth fabric of a kimono, maneuvering her hand higher to feel along the head, searching for dog ears that weren't there.

_"Wait…" _she stopped her panic before it got worse. _"Wasn't the new moon coming up? I couldn't have slept for two days could I?"_

She took her hand slowly back down the body and then grazed the shaft sticking out of the bodies right shoulder…that much making her instantly realize that it was Sesshomaru that was snoozing away on top of her - thankfully warm enough that it wasn't his corpse crushing her. He half-growled, half-moaned when she grazed the projectile making his wound though he didn't seem to stir further than that, making her snatch her hand away as if she had burned her. After several moments when he still didn't wake she snuck her fingers back over to the arrow…wrapping her fingers around it and pulling it out.

She coughed when fresh blood poured out and dripped around his back and onto her stomach and legs, she didn't remember shooting him so low but was more concerned with the fuller growl he released upon her pulling the arrow out. She tugged her scarf free to press it on his open wound, it wouldn't be much but she knew she needed to stop it somehow.

_"Real bright Kagome." _she chided herself. _"Now he might just bleed to death on top of you."_

She tried to shift her weight again and push her off of him but daggers of pain shot through her pours and lower body when she attempted, making her cry out in pain and she saw more sparks and tears appeared in her eyes.

_"Just how badly am I hurt?" _she wondered and then froze as she felt Sesshomaru shift above her.

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_"What isn't right this morning?"_

Sesshomaru's thoughts were foggy, a tang of annoyance pushing on his back as he laid. Perhaps a bug or some other pest trying to draw him from his slumber.

_"Something warm…something beneath me?"_

He smelled at the air and tried to start pulling himself from unconsciousness.

_"Blood. My blood, and…a human female. It's familiar. …and dirt, dampness, the scent of the deep underground." _his thoughts as disoriented as he was from his wounds. _"That's right, I fell with that damn interfering human girl. The fall had to have been deep if they were this far. What else? Plum? Flowers? This deep? No…the girl has some scent akin to that."_

Another few shallow breaths and then he felt his consciousness flicker when something seemed to dig deeper into his back and he felt some more actual pain, though it was slight it helped him refocus waking up.

_"Is the girl beneath me? Yes…she must be what's warm."_

It was her trying to move and then screaming that got him to open his eyes and look at her.

Inuyasha's strange priestess, why was she pushing her hand against his wound? She'd pulled the arrow out but that didn't quite fit considering she'd put it there in the first place. He would have given her an annoyed glare but he realized from her unfocused eyes that she couldn't possibly see anything. They were both covered in blood, almost as if they had bathed in it, more than should have been caused by the fall. He shifted his weight off of her and let her hand fall free to allow the wound to bleed - he was already healing and it would likely close soon now that the arrow had been pulled free of his skin.

He eyed the cave walls and noted that there wasn't an opening above them that was completely free, meaning they either fell and we're moved here or that they had been very lucky and a cave in above somewhere had missed them. A large yellow pack that was likely the girls had busted open and dropped all sort of odd things nearby. That he left to nothing for now and instead glanced toward the only opening large enough to fit through that was leading away from here.

Then his sharp ears picked up a gentle hum in the distance.

_"An underground river perhaps? A bath would do me well, I'm not in the habit of being caked in my own blood." _he considered idly. _"I can't just kill her yet. It might be someone's plan for me to kill her, I won't fall into such a simple trap so easily."_

"Uh." she finally interrupted his train of thought. Her voice was weak from lack of water, barely audible for most, but nothing he would have trouble hearing. "Your wound needs to be bandaged."

"You are in worse shape than I." He observed with his cold voice, his wound was still bleeding but it had slowed to a trickle and would completely stop within a few moments.

He extended his study to his new and hopefully temporary companion in this entrapment.

_"She's covered in cuts and bruises. Likely I was at some point too but healed all of those wounds already, a good reason that we'd be covered in blood like this. Seems like more than what could have been caused by the fall though." _He frowned the last thought grimly.

"Are you going to leave me here?" she asked, unable to keep the hint of fear from her voice when she spoke.

"No." his reply didn't hold a hint of kindness but at least she wasn't going to be completely alone. "There is running water near here. Do you have bandages in your bag? A lot of it has scattered across the dirt."

"Yes." she nodded and winced when she tried to get up again, any pressure on her lower back or hips was making her want to feint. She could hear him gathering her things and then lifting her bag, freezing when she felt him reach down to pick her up. Biting her lip to blood to keep from screaming as he moved her and tried her best not to cry at the pain in her back and legs. She knew then that something down there was broken and grasped onto Sesshomaru's kimono over his chest.

"Will you make it?" he asked, able to see her ready to cry from pain. Wondering if she'd be able to be of any help if she was this injured as a human, they never healed as quickly as his race.

"Yes." she hissed out between clenched teeth. "Maybe I'll be able to adjust once I wash up."

He didn't reply and instead started off down the cavern speedily. Kagome near tears and thoughts of her situation just making her worse. She reached up toward her neck, however negative the jewel might have been it had somehow always connected her with Inuyasha. She reached up to grab the bottle holding them and then patted her chest in shock.

The shards were gone.

**End Chapter**

Whew, another chapter rewritten. Actually having a lot of fun with it now that I've stolen some free time from my super busy life. I tend to use most of my free time to write anymore, but that's okay cause I do really enjoy doing it.

_-Aura_

No reviews at this time - which isn't surprising as I just put back up chapter 1. Thanks to the people who Pmed me about the fiction though. Continued support is always helpful to keep stories going.


	3. Three: Nonchalant Manners

_May 04 2007: Author's Notes: _Right to chapter three. It's more fun to rewrite this older fic than I thought it would be. I'm actually enjoying it quite a bit.

_Summary of Chapter Two: _After waking alone in a cave, Sesshomaru and Kagome both were a little disoriented and very bloody and wounded from their fall. The caves above them closed they headed out of the only open area when Kagome realized that the jewel shards were missing.

**Chapter Three:** _Nonchalant Manners or Midnight Beauty_

"Wait. The jewel shards, I lost them." Kagome protested weakly, still doing her best not to let the tears flow.

"There was nothing else in that room, more or less shards of the shikon jewel." he explained his lack of intention to stop. "My guess is likely someone took them and left us there in the assumption we would be killed."

"Are you sure?" she asked uncertainly.

"Demons can sense shards most of the time can they not?" he replied with the slightest hint of annoyance to his cool voice. "I would have known if they were nearby. Just because I don't care for them myself doesn't mean I don't know they are around."

"Oh." Kagome nodded a little, trying to keep to conversation to avoid the constant agony in her lower body. "I didn't know that all demons could do that. A lot of them seem to want me around for it, Kouga can't do it, neither can Inuyasha."

"You should expect no less from a creature like Inuyasha. Half-breeds don't have the senses of their full blooded relations. As for the wolf demons, they are rather useless scavengers so it wouldn't surprise me." he answered, only keeping up the conversation because he realized it was keeping her conscious and he wasn't certain if she would die if she lost consciousness again.

"I can hear the water now too." She commented, choosing to leave the insults to her friends alone in her situation.

There was light somewhere ahead because she was able to start seeing outlines as she wind created by Sesshomaru's quick movement pressed it onto her face. She could finally make out the bloody demon lord and felt very odd being carried by him as opposed to Inuyasha, the fact that he was pressing her against his body to keep her steady was embarrassing. She couldn't expect him to hold her another way when he didn't have two arms but it was still very awkward for her.

He wasn't looking at her though and for that much she was thankful, she wasn't sure she could take his direct attention at the moment. His amber eyes instead were forward on the path he could see far better than her, his steps quick and steady which reminded her of her half-demon friend.

_"Inuyasha…did you come after me? If I dropped the shards and you found them you would still search me out to figure out what was wrong. I know he would try to come save me but he could have fallen too or even be lost somewhere else in these strange caves. Can he see in the dark like his brother can?"_

Her thoughts were only serving to disturb her more and she glanced back up to the full demon.

_"It's strange to think that I'm glad Sesshomaru is here. I couldn't get out of here if he hadn't been there where I'd fallen…it's good that he's bringing me along as opposed to just leaving me here. I owe him that much…this is the second time he's saved me."_

She still remembered when he killed the member of the seven that had been choking her was killed by the full demon brother of Inuyasha. She was still scanning his face carefully, he was regal in a way that was both inspiring and intimidating and even if she didn't always like the way he acted she had to admit that he'd elected a somewhat breathless reaction from her even when she'd first met him. He'd become much less of a jerk sense then. She looked immediately away when his eyes did flicker over her, blushing a little at her foreign thinking.

_"What's wrong with her now?" _Sesshomaru wasn't bothered so much by having to carry her, if it came to battle he would be forced to drop her but it wasn't as if shwas heavy otherwise. _"Does she have a fever as well? No. She's embarrassed about something. Strange human."e _

She gasped as they came more fully into the iridescent light, for the first time getting the chance to notice the large glowing stones that were giving light to a cavern opening with large mushrooms and a flowing underground river that was sparkling from reflection of the strange crystalline rock on the ceiling and floor before it rushed over a deeper area of the cave into some natural underground falls. Below them was a somewhat natural path into a lower area where a pool had built up before flowing off further down one of several passages out of this large subterranean garden.

"It's beautiful." Kagome breathed, forgetting her pain for just the shortest of moments as she took in the alien but breathtaking cavern.

To that the demon lord didn't offer an answer - it would have been stranger for him to agree. Instead he was scanning the area alertly with his eyes as he hopped them gracefully down the small 'cliff' along the falls to the lower area with a ease that was amazing even for him with only one arm and Kagome being a further unbalance.

Lights that didn't really exist danced in front of her eyes when he finally landed a little more harshly than was probably planned by the very short skid on the sand below. She was thankful when he settled her down that it wasn't hard ground, even if sand was going to stick to the blood it was much better than something rough to sit on while it still seemed that something in her hip or leg area was still broken.

Sesshomaru let her settle while he sniffed at the water to make sure it was safe to drink before cupping himself some and swallowing it, then bringing some to Kagome. Holding it to her lips in a rare show of compassion.

"Here," he offered. "It's drinkable."

"Ew…it's all bloody." Kagome managed to shake her head a little. Though at the denial she got a slightly raised silver brow before he dumped the cupped water on her lap and sat near her. "I can…hey…wait…what are you doing!?"

She was suddenly protesting him removing her clothing, not that her school uniform was in the best of shape but she certainly was arguing his taking them off of her. Finally he managed to grab both of her hands in his one and look at her seriously though it was fairly obvious he wasn't any happier about the situation than she was.

"You are heavily wounded, I can't even begin to treat the wounds you have until I get your clothing off of you. Until I manage to get you clean I won't be able to get a good look at how serious everything is. I can't be gentle if you keep fighting with me." The threat in his last comment was very clear.

She quit as she couldn't struggle a whole lot as she was anyway, choosing to help as opposed to feel worse as he could be being much ruder to her.

_"But still." _she thought nervously. _"Does he have to stare at me so much?"_

He took her scarf and moved to rinse it out, starting to wash her off with it from her shoulders down, it did hurt and she knew she would need to take peroxide to her wounds soon if she wanted to keep her body from getting an infection. They would need to be cleaned first and Sesshomaru was doing a surprising job as an aid in that department, some part of her marveling that she had the demon lord tending to her wounds while she was naked in an underground glowing cavern - it all seemed very surreal.

After a while he finished with her front and helped her turn over, painful as it was it wasn't as bad as it had been when he'd been carrying her. Though when he paused for a long time she started to flush and wonder if he was staring at her behind.

"What?" she finally asked.

He was still looking over the multitude of mystical symbols that had been carved into the whole of her back from her shoulders down to just above her ass. They were deep enough that permanent scars would be more than likely but not deep enough to kill her. He was vaguely surprised that she hadn't died from blood loss after that…or that none of the wounds seemed to be infected.

"Someone wrote on your back." he replied calmly. "With a blade."

**End Chapter**

Man, three chapters over a few hours…I've been busy. Pondering trying to get one more in tonight but I guess I'll see. If not I want to keep up work on this until I get it reposted.

_-Aura_

Still no new reviews cause well…I wrote the first three in the same setting.


	4. Four: More Than She Appears

_May 04 2007: Author's Notes: _Still having a lot of fun and a bit of insomnia so I figured I'd do this chapter as well. I'm actually combining the old chapters four and five into this one chapter because the older ones were both pretty darned short so I figured it would be a good idea.

_Summary of Chapter 3: _Sesshomaru and Kagome reached a safe area that had some illumination and water that could help them clean wounds and was drinkable. Sesshomaru was cleaning Kagome's wounds when he found that all sort of odd symbols had been carved into her back.

**Chapter Four:** _More Than She Appears or What Are You?_

"What?" she asked in disturbance to the news. "What did they write?"

"I'm not sure." he answered with a nonchalant shrug. His manner starting to annoy her given what he'd just said to her. "I believe it's something dealing with demons but I'm not completely familiar with some of the zymology being used. I should be able to tell more once I have the other blood cleaned off."

"Why would someone carve mystical symbols into my back?" she thought aloud, her own endless list of possibilities making her sick to her stomach.

"I'm not sure." He replied honestly, carefully picking small stones from her back and cleaning it as gently as he could in the circumstances, he was eyeing the strange patterns a little but using more of his concentration to work at cleaning her up some.

_"Her scent isn't fully human." _he observed now that some of the blood was being washed free he could pick up her personal aroma. _"It was more akin to the plum and flowers he'd barely gotten a whiff of before but there was some sort of power inherent in her. Even for a priestess there is something not quite right about her, there is too much power in her."_

Finally he dug out her medical kit, using the contents to further cleanse her back of dirt and grime, finally having to rinse out the scarf and taking his time to get it clear of her blood before he began again.

"Why are you helping me?" she asked nervously, not certain she wanted to hear the real answer.

"Because it seems like someone attacked both of us, I need to find out what that is and if you are injured you are more of a hindrance than if you are fixed." he shrugged as he moved back over.

_"That was brutally honest." _she sighed mentally; not very surprised, _"I shouldn't mind what the reason is as long as he doesn't plan to kill me. Still…if he can be so gentle with my wounds then he can't be all bad."_

"Could you take out the brown bottle and use some of the liquid inside to clean my wounds?" she asked.

He considered her to see if she was of an all right mind and then picked it out when she didn't seem mentally incapable, pulling it away from his nose as soon as he'd opened it.

"It's acid!" He took back his last observation immediately.

"It's weak and it'll keep my wounds from getting infected." Kagome argued meekly. "It'll hurt but I need it or I could get much sicker."

He eyed her skeptically but shrugged and used the rag to get some of the liquid, pressing it to her wounds and continuing to clean them, ignoring the squirms or gasps of pain as she had asked for it. After a short while that seemed like an eternity for her he finished by bandaging her up, propping her against a leg so he could wrap her whole chest along with her back.

"I'm not sure how to help whatever is wrong with your lower body. I think you may have broken a hip." He observed with the same indifference as usual for such statements. "I will have to carry you for a while and you'll have to try to move it as little as possible. You seem as if you have some sort of regenerative ability so it shouldn't take more than a couple days."

"I don't have regenerative ability." Kagome pointed out and winced as he picked her up and settled her onto the blanket she always brought back to the feudal era with her. "What about your wounds?"

He again gave her a slightly skeptical glance and shook his head. "If you didn't have regenerative ability you wouldn't have lost a lot of your smaller scraps in the time I carried you here and cleaned you up. I only have a single wound and it will heal much more quickly than yours. It would be better to worry about who or what put us here and why."

"Or what they did to us." she added with a hint of the same nervousness.

He didn't offer a retort, his mind considering things as well. _"They could have easily done the same to me. My skin would have healed long before I woke and I would be none the wiser about such a graft to my person. The circles on her back where hard to make out, two separate ones that were both similar but slightly different, one involved demons in some way and the other, I couldn't tell what it was suppose to mean. I have a bad feeling about this."_

"What do you think it was?" she asked, voice rather steady despite her fear.

"It could have been a lot of things. I would prefer to wait to make many guesses but most likely it is some sort of very complicated spell. I will be able to look at it better tomorrow once some of the swelling has gone down and it's scared more heavily." he answered with another shrug, starting to take his clothes off, shoving the kimono over a shoulder after setting the upper piece of the armor down carefully.

Kagome flushed a bright red as he started to undress, looking away from him. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to take a bath." he answered without pausing, pushing the kimono over his shoulder and then letting the smooth fabric slide down his full arm. She closed her eyes so she couldn't accidentally glance while he doing that and did her best to rest without being flustered at her very handsome and very naked savior nearby.

The silence was almost unbearable for her, he seemed content simply to clean himself while she lay there unable to really do much for her own poor hygiene. All she heard was the falls or the occasional splash of the demon that was in the water.

_"What's he doing in there? Playing?" _Kagome asked herself in irritation. _"Why does this day seem to be taking ages?"_

She was feeling better at her bandaged front and back but she hoped she'd be able to wash off her legs and clean her hair of the caked blood soon. She wasn't about to ask him to take her skirt off, it was bad enough that he'd removed her top and bra and didn't put it back. She gave him quite some time to dress before finally opening her eyes again to see him laying naked nearby.

She flushed perhaps further than before - if that was possible - and turned quickly away.

_"Oh my god." _she thought frantically. _"Doesn't he know he should wear clothes? I thought he was the proper one? I guess him and Inuyasha really do have a lot in common, they are both clueless when it comes to women!"_

The demon lord smirked some, able to scent her frustration and slight attraction. He was used to mortal women being attracted to his appearance but they needed their clothes to hang and dry now that he'd cleaned them - she would have to survive.

He waited for a long while for her to fall asleep before digging the brush he'd seen out of her bag to brush at his tail and hair; she wasn't awake to protest it. He brushed his hair for a time and then gathered what he figured would be able to burn, having to hop about the large cavern for a while but managing to find pieces of wood that had drifted down the river, a good sign at least that there was an opening to the outdoors upstream.

He'd finally removed her other clothing to wash it as well so it could dry and then returned to their small campsite. Once he'd spent a while wandering he dug through the rest of her bag, sniffing at the foodstuff she seemed to have but likely needed preparation, a reason to wake her from the nightmare she seemed to be having.

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Kagome woke to utter darkness but blinking in panic when she not only couldn't see but didn't feel anything else nearby her. She was completely naked now and all alone in a place where she couldn't see, she couldn't hear the running water anymore.

_**"Embrace the darkness." **_a dark hypnotic sort of voice reached her ears and sent a shiver up her spine.

"I'd rather not…" she muttered, trying to look around to no avail and growing more panicked by the moment.

_**"You have it in you. If you don't accept it then it will eat you away."**_

"What do you mean? I have it in me? I have what in me?" she demanded, doing her best to keep the fear out of her voice as she kept herself from shivering.

_**"The darkness."**_

She forced herself to sit up, it hurt but she found she could manage it.

_**"You cannot run from it."**_

She felt sand brushing against her from a sudden wind and then familiar stickiness of blood on her hands, suddenly wanting to cry a little.

_**"Running will only end in it's consuming you."**_

Then the ground was breaking up again and she was about to fall when someone grabbed her.

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She woke up with a start when Sesshomaru grabbed her arm. Suddenly thankful that she could see him and then frowning as she pulled the blanket around her person.

"Pervert!" she accused.

"Pardon?" he gave that small raise of a brow at the name calling.

"Why are you grabbing me when I'm naked?"

"You seemed to be having a nightmare." he answered without much emotion. "You were asleep for several hours and the clothes are dry now, more of your wounds have closed and I'd imagine that you can take a bath if you'd like before putting back on the clean clothes. Then you can make some of your food, your stomach has been rumbling loudly for the past hour."

_"Just coming to wake me up." _Kagome chided herself again. _"Sesshomaru hates humans and Inuyasha just cause he's half human so I shouldn't be worried about that sort of thing with this guy. Paranoid much Kagome?"_

"Yeah, I'll take a bath and then make something." she agreed, bashfully gathering her soaps and shampoos before moving toward the water, her back and body were still sore but he'd been right - she healed far faster than she should have been able to.

The red clouds in the water around her as she washed herself weren't helping her already worried mood. Blinking at her hands as they were so red from it all.

_"Darkness and blood on my hands? It's been dark here but I've done anything but embrace it. And whose blood on my hands? Sesshomaru's? No…he's fine, his back is already healed according to him. So who? Are my dreams telling me something? Or it could be just a nightmare like Sesshomaru said when he woke me up."_

She wasn't really thinking about it and removed her bandages to wash completely, losing herself in thought as she worked at getting all of the red liquid from her skin, she needed to get herself as clear of it as possible. It opened back up a couple of her own wounds but was worth it to feel clean for the first time since the fall.

"No looking." she reminded just once given the sniff of aversion he'd given her when she'd mentioned it. She still thought he was occasionally glancing over but knew it was more than likely for any threats to her than for some sort of sexual thing.

She finished after a while and climbed carefully out, still sore enough that she didn't want to press her luck, shaking dry and then using the blanket to dry before hanging it up and putting her clothes back on. Frowning when she found her brush and the white hairs within it.

"Hey, who told you that you could use my brush." she protested.

"You were asleep, I could hardly ask." he pointed out.

"Well…next time ask." she snapped, sitting down in a huff and starting to pull his hair from it in silvery clumps.  
She finished that and then went to her bag to pull out the small pot and start cooking, she really was hungry and needed nourishment if she really wanted to get better. "would you like something?"  
"I don't need to eat human food." he answered with a shake of his head. "I am able but I think you should save it as you may need it yourself."

"Oh." that dampened her spirits. "Right."

"What are you?" he asked bluntly.

She had just started to eat and almost choked on the noodles.

"You clearly aren't fully human, so what are you?"

**End Chapter**

Okay, this chapter was much longer thanks to the combined two, one of which I actually ditched quite a bit of as it wasn't really needed. Hope folks enjoy my putting this back up in it's re-written state.

_-Aura_

Same comment as last time as for reviewer replies.


	5. Five: Eyes From Afar or Haunting Dreams

_May 05 2007: Author's Notes: _Okay, continuing work to get this re-released. Whew. I'm going to combine my former chapters of 6 and 7 for this chapter because the others were pretty short and this way I'm fixing them up together.

_Summary for Chapter 4: _Sesshomaru had finished cleaning the wounds on Kagome and she rested for a bit before bathing and starting to fix breakfast. Then she was shocked by Sesshomaru's comment that she wasn't human followed by the question of what she was…

**Chapter 5:**_Eyes From Afar or Haunting Dreams_

"Wha…what do you mean? I'm human." she paled slightly, taking the bowl and food down away from her mouth as she gaped at the demon seated nearby.

"You don't smell human, you don't have power like a normal human, you don't heal at a speed anywhere near that of a human." he pointed out each of his comments with the raise of a clawed finger. "That leads me to believe that you are something else."

"But…I am human." Kagome was still surprised by the question and shaking her head. "I am human."

"Then you don't know." He figured aloud. "Perhaps part human and part something else…not a demon so I'm not really sure. It's not just your priestess powers…"

_"A half-something?" _she thought anxiously, _"but I'm not half demon…so what then?"_

_**Darkness.**_

The word haunted her thoughts from her strange dream.

"Don't let it concern you overly. It's a compliment, makes you somewhat worthwhile." He replied coolly.

"Gee, thanks." she commented with dry sarcasm, offering a dirty look for his trouble before continuing, "So if I'm not human or demon, what could I be?"

"If I knew what you were, then I wouldn't have asked." he pointed out slightly snooty-like. "We should rest for the remainder of today, within eight or nine hours you should be fine enough to walk on your own without pain. At least assuming the rate of regeneration you've been having keeps up at it's same pace."

"Right…and then we'll search for a way out. What do we do when we find one? Or even if we don't?" Kagome asked more seriously, accepting the change of topic despite her annoyance.

"We'll deal with the next step when it comes." he shrugged.

"Will you kill me?" she asked a little nervously.

"Only if you annoy me enough." he was getting up from where he was sitting and heading toward her with his claws glowing slightly green which made her start to move back with a frightened swallow.

She closed her eyes as he got close and then she felt him pass by, his quickness creating a gentle wind that tickled the goose bumped skin she'd gotten in return for the perceived threat. She heard a scuffling then that she hadn't noticed before.

"Move into the water and stay down." His voice ordered as an acidic yellow whip cut into a porcupine styled creature nearby.

The large vermin hissed at Sesshomaru from the insult, it's front legs bending downward as it raised it's hind in the air, the quills lifting and pointing toward the demon lord. The whip cut back across before it could do anything else and cut it's weapon in half as it took the second sweep, making the creature cry out in pain a second time before launching several of the sharp projectiles.

A whole line of them fell though one reached his left hip and the other his right shoulder before they burst into smaller particles, turning from damaging to devastating in an instant.

"Don't kill it!" Kagome called out then. "It's just protecting it's babies."

The whip caught and cut the creature's head free from it's body on the next swipe, finishing the battle with nothing more than an annoyed grimace from the demon where his skin was already starting to push free the splinters from the attack. With a natural defense and regenerative system beyond even that of most demons Sesshomaru seemed unconcerned with the attack as a whole.

Kagome could just watch in shock as he murdered the mother without mercy, staring at him like he was…well; a demon.

"Don't even mention it human, lie down and rest." Sesshomaru ordered before Kagome could use the breath she'd taken in to berate him. "We were lucky it attacked while we were awake, if we had been sleeping I imagine you wouldn't have survived."

"But what about it's cubs?" she asked sadly, glancing to where the younger demon porcupine creatures had begun to cry.

"They will survive or die." he settled himself back on the ground. "That is the way of the world."

Kagome picked back up her abandoned meal from the beginning of the conversation and watched the cubs moving to sniff at their mother and nudge her while they cried for her.

_"I hate that he's right." _she sighed to herself as she turned back to her noodles, eating just cause she knew she needed the nourishment more than anything. _"Likely it wouldn't have stopped whatever we did and we need a place to rest if we want to get out of here. But…he didn't have to be so callous about it. I don't know what to think. He did save me."_

"Thank you." she said softly without looking at him. "…for saving me."

That gave him a moment of pause. _"I did that on purpose. I wanted to save her. Not just because of them trapping us here. Why would I want to…"_

Her comment interrupted his train of thought. "Are you okay?"

He had been staring. He nodded slowly then.

"You are welcome."

"Why did you save me?" she asked hesitantly.

"I need you for the moment." he shrugged and glanced around. "It's getting colder, do you only have the single blanket?"

"Um…no…just the one." Kagome replied, happy for the change of topic. "How cold do you think it will get?"

"Judging from how quickly the temperature is dropping now. I'd imagine much more." he answered. "I will be fine but will you?"

"Um…I hope so." Kagome answered nervously looking around the cooler cave, noting for the first time that the lights of the crystals seemed to be dimming. As if they naturally followed the pattern of days outside, that at least was somewhat comforting - the idea of freezing to death made it less.

"Come here." the order was simple, his voice a icy velvet.

"I have a name." she muttered in annoyance of his never using it. Finishing her noodles and getting up.

"Bring the blanket you have with you."

She sent him a questioning look but when he didn't explain she picked it up and moved over to him. As she wandered up he stretched his tail and laid it across the ground in all it's large flufflyness, motioning her onto it.

_"Sleep on his tail?" _she thought skeptically. _"Is he sure about this? Yes it would be warmer but I thought he hated humans. I hope I'm not getting this wrong."_

She tentatively moved onto it, hoping she wasn't mistaking what he meant, half expecting him to cut her in half. She couldn't help but blush when he pulled the tail closer to his body and wrapped the rest of it's length around them. He was already resting but the experience was awkward for her to say the least.

_"This is bizarre on a level I can't really describe. I know I never thought I'd be in the feudal era to begin with but using Sesshomaru grand tail for bedding?" _Her thoughts bothered her only a little, even if it was the demon lord's fluff it was comfortable enough that she was fading quickly into slumber.

It was a short while later when the demon lord allowed himself to drift into a light sleep as well with his unexpected companion for this unpredicted adventure. Neither of the pair feeling or having any idea of the eyes that were watching them from afar.

**End Chapter**

Those chapters we're actually hard to re-write and we're both so short that I got fewer words out of this new chapter than I liked. This one I might go back and fix -yet again- in the future.

_-Aura_

Still no reviews to reply to.


	6. Six: Dangerous Games or Shades of Red

_May 07 2005: Author's Notes: _This chapter was originally where Kagome was singing the song that I put in but I decided that didn't fit very well so I wanted to change it around and turn it into a chapter that was a song fiction chapter. With just the lyrics backing what was going on. I liked the new idea better so I changed it.

_Summary of Chapter 5: _After a short conversation where Kagome found out she wasn't fully human by Sesshomaru's rude commentary he shifted and protected her from an attack by other large animal demons. When Kagome found out it would be very cold outside she took an offer to sleep on Sesshomaru's tail as opposed to just the cool ground.

**Chapter Six:** _Dangerous Games or Shades of Red_

"It really is cold." Kagome thought groggily amidst her dreams as she curled into the sheets she thought she had, subconsciously pulling herself closer to the demon lord. The images passing and turning into something more amorous as she curled her fingers into his silver hair and took in a deep breath against his chest.

_**I feel your fingers,**_

_**Brushing my shoulder.**_

Sesshomaru reacted to the closer female, his only arm wrapping around her in return for her nuzzling into his form, tugging her further on top of him and curling his tail about the two of them more tightly.

_**Your tempting touch**_

_**As it tingles my spine!**_

She kissed his collarbone, trailing her lips along it until she reached his neck, taking tiny bites at it while her body shifted to accommodate her new movements. Nibbling on the bottom of his ear while her fingers ran across the top of his chest, starting to open the top of his kimono. She paused when his hand rubbed up her back and he pulled her closer still, the two opening their eyes groggily to watch each other.

_**Watching your eyes,**_

_**As they invade my soul.**_

Commanding gold met brilliant cerulean for a split second before sliding shut with a deep kiss, their bodies pressing closer to one another while they were still half in sluggish hallucinations, believing that they were dreaming as they progressed.

_**Forbidden pleasures.**_

_**I'm afraid to make mine.**_

His shirt was completely off of his shoulders and her skirt had been pulled up in such a way that there was little blocking the sensation of her when her hips grinded against his while they made out. Hands wandering over each others skin as a single clawed hand deftly started to unbutton her shirt, the kiss finally pausing when they had to break for air, staring at each other with a new realization of what they were doing.

_**At the touch of your hand.**_

_**At the sound of your voice.**_

_"What the hell am I doing?" _both thought simultaneously, staring at each other without moving from the suggestive position.

_**At the moment your eyes meet mine.**_

"What the hell are you doing?" was the synchronic remark, the two staring at each other again in a little more shock, embarrassment, and uncertainly.

_**I am out of my mind.**_

_**I am out of control.**_

"I was…" both started and stopped. "I…" Each paused again and finally Kagome spoke up first. "I was dreaming and then…just…"

_**Full of feelings I can't define.**_

She shrugged a little, still staring at him with a hint of desire that she couldn't manage to guard, feeling his own arousal quite keenly from where she sat and starting to curl her fingers over his chest absently; not quite realizing her action.

_**It's a sin with no name.**_

_**Like a tiger to tame.**_

He watched her, listening to the explanation and curling his own hand more tightly around her waste when she started teasing his skin with her soft hands. Leaning up to kiss her a second time when she reacted to his squeeze by pushing down closer to him again, tugging at her shirt again when she moaned against his mouth.

_**And our senses proclaim.**_

_**It's a dangerous game.**_

Each of them could tell that something wasn't completely right, yet their minds were sluggish and somehow drunk with the idea of being so near to one another. Neither could truly convince themselves that it was a good answer to the cold curling in around them; they barely felt it anymore, nearly burning at the tantalizing touches.

_**A darker dream.**_

_**That has no ending.**_

"Wait…wait." Sesshomaru finally paused her, pulling back and catching his breath more quickly than she was. "Something isn't right here."

_**Something unreal.**_

_**That you want to be true.**_

He didn't just toss her away, noting that she even didn't seem completely in grasp of her senses, holding her side while she drew a little back and managed to slowly focus on his face, blushing as she thought even more about the position they were in.

_**A strange romance.**_

_**Out of a mystery tale.**_

"I'm…sorry…" she whispered, still staring at him, her free hand still tracing the muscles of his chest as she watched him. "I…you are just…I don't know…"

_**The frightened princess.**_

_**Doesn't know what to do.**_

"We shouldn't…" he was interrupted when she moved her hand lower and under his belt, tugging it a little free and teasing his more delicate flesh, making him hesitate at first and then raise his hand to tug her head closer again with a slight growl. The short leash he'd managed to summon for his self-control tearing itself at her more direct approach.

_**Does she just run away?**_

_**Does she risk it and stay?**_

_**Either way there's no way to win.**_

She pulled free of his lips with a gasp as he tore her shirt free of the final two buttons by ripping it off, his claw detaching the bra she had on before he slid his hand down the rest of her spine and started tugging the panties free of her legs, she had to pull a little away and the two were forced to stop for a moment while they readjusted their clothing.

_**All I know is I'm lost.**_

_**And I'm counting the cost.**_

The longer pause made Kagome finally catch up to herself as he pulled her underwear free of her body, raising a hand and doing her best to meekly hold him away and almost drunkenly protest. "Sesshomaru…we need to stop…something is controlling us."

_**My emotions are in a spin.**_

That made him also catch himself, the two nearly completely naked with his tail wrapped tightly around them as they stared at each other. Breathing heavily as they kept eye contact but didn't risk maneuvering anymore than usual. He nodded a little to show her that the words had reached him and while it made him angry he couldn't manage to call any crimson into his eyes, afraid he would hurt the delicate human that was still half laying on him.

_**And though no one's to blame.**_

_**It's a crime and a shame.**_

"I…should I pull away?" she managed to ask, still hesitating near his face as her brain and body pushed her to continue what they had started, she could still feel his erection digging into her hip and her own womanhood burned for her to respond to his body.

"You would freeze." he pointed out with as calm a voice as he could muster, still augmented with his own unexpected desire for the human, well partially human, priestess.

_**But it's true all the same.**_

_**It's a dangerous game.**_

They just stayed as they were for several moments, unable to pull away and not wanting to move closer, fighting against the strange behavior and emotions that were overtaking them. It was as if they figured waiting long enough might stop whatever it was but the longer they waited the more difficult it became to resist whatever it was that was pressing on them.

_**No one speaks.**_

_**Not one word.**_

_**All our words are in our eyes.**_

Eventually it was bound to snap, a small twitch as Kagome shifted her weight, brushing her chest against his skin and leaning down closer to his face, falling into another long kiss as Sesshomaru pulled her body back into a position where she was straddling him again.

_**Silence speaks!**_

_**Loud and clear!**_

_**All the words we want to hear!**_

She pressed her body against his then, skin against skin as the kiss grew in intensity slowly, as if their fighting against it was just slowing down what would be inevitable. Trembling as they held one another and fought against some sort of instinct they both believed unnatural.

_**At the touch of your hand.**_

_**At the sound of your voice.**_

_**At the moment your eyes meet mine.**_

He trailed claws gently over her back and then her chest, teasing her into a gasp as she shifted her hips to allow her to rub against his arousal, the growl she got in return just seeming to egg her on into a slightly faster pace, the two barely managing to fight down losing all control to one another. Sesshomaru kissing along her neck and moving down with another rumble as she continued to press herself against him, shivering into him as he licked over one of her nipples.

_**I am out of my mind.**_

_**I am out of control.**_

_**Full of feelings I can't define.**_

She gasped and adjusted her hips a final time to allow him entry into her body, combining with him fully as they pulled against one another, that movement snapping what remained of the little discipline they'd had left as they finally gave up on any chance of pulling apart.

_**It's a sin with no name.**_

_**Like a tiger to tame.**_

_**And though no ones to blame…**_

Within moments both had lost themselves to the throws of passion, bodies curling against each other as they moaned, gasped, or growled in pleasures long forgotten or never known. Breathing heavily as they grew in speed and even starting to sweat despite the cool room as they tumbled around the sandy underground beach - wounds long forgotten. Expending all of their energy over the next several hours before they collapsed into each other and still pressed near even when they had finished, falling into a deep slumber again before either had time to think about what had happened.

**It's a crime and a shame!**

**And the angel's proclaim!**

**It's a dangerous game.**

**End Chapter**

Whew, that was a lot of fun to re-write, more lemony than I usually do but man I have to admit I enjoyed it. giggle Sorry. Anyway, this was a better re-write than the original (which was just horrid in comparison)

_-Aura_

To my reviewer:

_Hieisfiredemoness_ - Thank you for the encouraging words. I think this is much better than the last one I worked on.


	7. Seven: Embrace the Darkness

_May 07 2007: Author's Notes: _Cause I do really know the year. Last chapter was a typo. As it is 2007 - I'm just a couple years behind lol. Anyway, moving right to the next chapter. This is a combination of my former 9 and 10 chapters.

_Summary of Chapter six: _Kagome and Sesshomaru while sleeping…ended up sleeping together. Both not really in control of themselves at the time but falling into the seduction of each other regardless - either unwilling or unable to completely fight the mysterious force compelling them.

**Chapter Seven:** _Embrace the Darkness or Earth Diving Again?_

It was quiet and warming up again when the two woke up from their deep slumber, tangled in each bodies while they slept and drowsily pulling themselves back to consciousness before they instantly pulled away from one another. Kagome grabbed her bra and shirt, trying to put them on as quickly as possible as her cheeks lit up red.

Sesshomaru was reacting more coldly than embarrassed as he also moved to put his pants at least back into place. It was difficult for him to dress alone but he managed to be decent by the time that Kagome was, she numbly moved to start a fire and cook herself food - her stomach rumbling even if she didn't feel like eating she needed something to preoccupy her time with.

"Whoever cut into you probably did the same to me." Sesshomaru spoke first, his voice the perfect silken frigid thing it always was - as if he'd been unaffected by what had happened. "I would assume that they can use whatever they did to control us slightly."

"Slightly! SLIGHTLY!" she nearly shrieked as her voice jumped in pitch, breaking as she tried to cry but couldn't manage to make the moisture in her eyes fall. "They used my body for…to…"

"I should have realized it sooner." he seemed to be admonishing himself but he was usually impossible to read. "My apologies."

Her brains train of thought paused when he said that. _"Wait…apologies? From Sesshomaru? He didn't want to do it either- he hates humans…even if I'm not fully one I'm probably lucky he's not killing me. He must actually feel bad for losing control like that. I just wish my first time hadn't been stolen from me…not that it was all bad…but does that mean it will keep happening? What is it someone could want from…from stealing my virginity? From having us…"_

She shook her head, fighting the tears that were threatening now.

"Are you all right? Are you hurt?" he asked, remembering that things had gotten rather rough at a couple times…it's rare that even a partial human would survive such a time with a demon.

"I don't know." she answered honestly. "Everything at least seems to be back in my control."

She was still on the verge of tears and wasn't really seeing the noodles she was stirring nearby.

"Are you hurt?" he repeated with a little more stress to draw her back to answering him.

She thought about that before shaking her head in the negative, she was a little sore but her body actually felt amazing other than that - apparently she was fully healed outside of that one small thing.

_"She's not taking this very well…" _he figured as he watched her not really paying attention to her cooking. _"…not that I am happy about it but it's not her fault. At least she isn't a full human…it could have been worse on either end. Are humans this emotional about everything? It wasn't as if I'd been unpleasant with her. She seemed to enjoy it rather heavily after…that's it…she hadn't ever been with someone intimately before last night."_

"It wasn't your fault Kagome." he said in a rare show of kindness. "You can't let it get to you so much, you weren't actually willing so don't think of it as being real."

"But…but it was." her breathing was uneven and she was still fighting the act of sobbing. "What if I'm pregnant?"

That made him laugh a little, shaking his head at her and realizing that it wasn't the best idea to seem amused at her expense. "Don't worry about that. You haven't been and still aren't in heat. I would know if you were in such a state."

He touched his nose in silent explanation before she asked him and she nodded a little, seeming to lighten considerably and he silently had to agree with that sort of relief - he wouldn't be feeling well either if she was with child.

"After you eat we should head on our way. I think I know the tunnel that will lead us closer to the surface, it's taken time to recognize some of the subtler scents but I believe it will take us closer to our destination of reaching the surface again. Then we can start to find out just what might have been done to us." He explained, rising and moving off to bath in an area away from her. "Try not to take too long."

He figured if he kept her mind busy it would be easier on her than dwelling on what had happened, as irritating as it had been there was little that could be done about it now but finding the cause and stopping it before it happened again.

Kagome ate in silence and let him bathe, lost in thoughts of her own of how she would ever explain what had happened, she hadn't really wanted to sleep with him…had she?

She was turning herself in circles and was rushing to try to think of it as little as possible though by the time they left she'd put herself back into a confused and much more dreary mood than usual for the bubbly girl.

They walked together for a while before finally Sesshomaru seemed to lose patience and turned toward her.

"We need to move faster." he pointed out. "Come here, I'll carry you."

"What?" she blinked in shock. "We shouldn't do that. I think it's a bad idea."

"You move too slow, we need to get out of here before too many more nights pass." he pointed out, that much making her accent to the request though she didn't really want to.

She felt guilty when she found herself feeling secure as he held her body against his while he ran, wanting to be back with Inuyasha, to have him carrying her instead. She knew they were covering more ground and agreed that they needed out of this strange situation as soon as possible but she was questioning so much of what she was feeling that she didn't enjoy being carried by him either.

Though her troubling mind kept her busy enough that his long run to an intersection had passed much more quickly than expected, settling her down so she could back away and stretch while he sniffed at the passages.

There were still small crystals that were lighting their way but they only continued down one of the two possible passages, the left one - the other would drop Kagome into blindness. She frowned some as a single phrase haunted her at the comparison.

_**"Embrace the darkness."**_

"Left I think." He said. "It goes toward the surface. The air is a little clearer, I'd say from here we probably have about a day before we'll reach an opening."

"I think it's a trap." Kagome said bluntly. "It's the easier path, it's lit like that. I think we should go the other route."

"The other path has several more scents and most are difficult to distinguish from here. That makes it the more dangerous of the choices." He answered without seeming to be convinced at all by her words.

"It seems lucky to me." she hoped he would buy the lie she was giving, she needed to listen to what her gut was telling her - and hope it wasn't whatever was controlling her last night.

"You aren't telling me everything." he observed, seeing through her nervousness much more easily, she wore her emotions on her sleeve enough that he could read them like a book. He narrowed his eyes on her enough that she was instantly more nervous.

"I…had a dream when we first woke up here…" she blushed as she explained. "It told me I needed to 'embrace the darkness' or that I would be consumed by it."

"People have been giving us dreams and controlling us." Sesshomaru reminded her. "It seems unwise to continue on such a belief."

"I really think we should follow it though." she argued in annoyance of his not listening.

"And that seems heavily like control." he pointed out coolly, starting down the lit path.

Kagome followed and then jumped as she felt the ground shift, jumping forward to grab Sesshomaru's arm as he fell into a pit that had been an illusion before they'd reached it. Shattering when they stepped near and her arm was pulling out of her socket from the weight as she tried to hold up the heavy demon.

"I told you…" she grumbled through clenched teeth before she fell back onto her ass from his sudden weightlessness, clouds seeming to gather at his feet as he floated back to floor level and stepped back onto solid ground no worse for wear, raising a silver brow at her.

"You were saying?"

"Oh shut up." she snapped in annoyance at his 'holier than thou' demeanor. "We should go the other way. This one could be littered with more traps like this."

"So could the other path." he reminded her but sighed. "It's nothing worse than here, but you won't be able to see."

"That…is okay." she nodded to him. "I think this is what we need to do."

"You are a strange part human." he commented. "Shall we go then?"

She nodded a little, accepting his grip as he picked her up again to start running.

"Why…did you call me Kagome before. You never did that until this morning." she asked him quietly as they moved.

"I just did." his retort was fast and cold.

"But you never had before…" she pointed out. "would…would you keep calling me by my name?"

"I suppose so…" he answered her with a small nod. "Kagome."

"Sesshomaru." she was surprised to hear herself say his name without anger in it. "Who do you think did all of this?"

"I can't be sure." he replied calmly. "It could be any number of things that came after us."

"Well, what about my back? It feels a lot better now. You might be able to read more and get an idea of what else is happening." She pointed out, reminding him of the circles that had been carved into her skin there.

"I imagine I could, but it might not be the best idea." he warned her as he took a jump over a pit she couldn't see and somewhat smiled when she gripped onto him more at the motion. He liked her near him more than he wanted to admit even to himself.

"Why?" she asked naively, unable to see what was happening now that they'd gotten so far away from the lights of the strange crystals.

"Nothing." he said after a moment, in a way she realized wasn't true. "I will check it when we stop for rest."

It took her a few more moments before she realized why it might be a bad idea and she blushed when she thought about it. After the problems before it made a lot of sense why he might not want to be super close to her bare skin, but they had to know.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully and mostly in silence before they reached a platform that seemed secure enough were they could rest and there were a few of the illuminating crystals so Kagome was offered a little bit of vision. She ate a granola bar that wouldn't require her cooking as they didn't have the wood or other kindling that they would need for a fire.

After she ate she waited a while before she was reminded that Sesshomaru needed to see the circles to read them. She moved closer to them and after a long moment of hesitation she pulled her shirt up to show him the circles - her bra discarded a bit ago as he'd made it worthless the night before by cutting through it.

He narrowed his eyes on the strange mystical writing and traced a finger over the soft skin on her back, it was still subtle even when it was scarred and he had to remind himself to pay attention to the circles and lettering instead of her body. He could smell her flush and hear her heart rate quicken as he did what he could to decipher their only real clue to the puzzle.

"This outer one, it is a binding circle of some kind." he explained as he ran a finger lightly around it, making her twitch a little from the gentle tickle. "From the look of the wording in it's interior it is a binding circle for demons…normally these are used to trap the demons inside the circle, making it impossible for them to leave…however it's slightly broken and would be useless anyway considering it's placement. Yet it holds another circle inside it."

He repeated the touching of the correct scars to show her as best he could what she couldn't see.

"This center one seems to be a circle within a circle…a rare form of warding used to bind two circles together…a sort of fusion to ward off both targets at once. It's hard to complete successfully. The strange thing is, it's to ward off humans. So the placement would have nullified any magic immediately. As you are part human."

As he finished the explanation he helped pull her shirt gently back into place before his mind wandered further than he wanted it to. He wouldn't allow himself to lose his control as he did the night before, not again, not now that he knew for sure what it was.

"So why carve it on me at all then?" she asked as she turned around.

"It's a different level."

"Huh?" she asked in confusion.

His velvet voice explained coolly, "Another level of deception. Everything that continues to happen with us are different parts of the web of the weaver. Each level is a new level of deception. It's just another tool to make us glance about as we get caught by more and more sticky strings. The idea is to build enough possibilities that we can never track down the true center of the deception until it's too late. The spider wins."

"Naraku." Kagome more stated than guessed as he mentioned a spider.

"A strong possibility." he agreed. "Though we should rest for a while before deciding on the path we'll take next."

"Right." she wasn't going to argue, even if he'd carried her most of the day she was exhausted. She pulled her blanket out and blushed when Sesshomaru lay his tail out for her. "…are you sure?"

"You'll freeze without it." he shrugged. "We haven't much choice."

She nodded with a small sigh, smiling a little tiredly and laying down on the fluffy tail drifted off to sleep before very long.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_"Inuyasha?" _Kagome thought groggily as he pushed her awake.

"Come on." the half-demon's voice reached her as he shook her again. "You've already slept enough lazy, we need to get back on the road."

"Huh?" She blinked at him in disbelief, her eyes adjusting to the light of the late afternoon. "Inuyasha!?"

"Duh." he retorted with his usual wit. "hurry up Kagome, I'm hungry. You did bring Ramen this time too right?"

"But…" she protested a little with confusion, looking around the forest. _"Was it all just a bizarre dream or nightmare?"_

"But what? What the heck is wrong with you now?" he asked rudely.

She scowled at him in return for the lack of kindness, huffing. "I was having a dream."

"About what?" he raised a brow at her suspiciously. "You sure were blushing and muttering a lot. You certain you're as innocent as you act."

"Sit boy!"

The command sent Inuyasha face first into the dirt, muffled cursing reaching her ears as he pushed himself back up from the ground with a small glare toward her.

"Fine. Well get to cooking then…I'll wait over there." he pouted before he jumped off into some trees nearby.

Kagome mostly ignored him as she reached up to touch the shards that were hanging safely around her neck, gently sparkling in the bottle in which she kept them. _"That had to be a really vivid dream."_

"Wait. Inuyasha?" she called after him. "Come back. I have a question."

She started digging out cups with noodles to fix while she looked around at the forest. It was green and alive, fresh and beautiful and bright; a complete contrast to the caves she thought she'd been traveling in for days. She took a deep breath to enjoy the air. _"But…I wasn't really there…"_

"Now what?" the half demon demanded as he landed again, not looking at her and still with wounded pride thanks to being sat face first into the ground.

"What happened after the battle with Sesshomaru?" she asked as she started water to boil.

He jumped over to her, sniffing at her and eyeing her curiously.

"Are you sure you are okay? How could you forget that? All the rest didn't stop talking about it for over a week. You killed him remember? Twisted the arrow right into his heart cause you are a crazy woman that can't mind your own battles. You aren't going to feint again are you?"

**End Chapter**

Whew, I had a lot to fix over those two chapters and still ended up extending them by quite a bit. It was fun but after this I'm gonna go pass out for a while. I'm up way later than I should be working on this. But I wanted to hit over 10,000 words on my re-write and was less than one hundred away after I posted the last chapter so I put up this one.

_-Aura_

No reviews between last chapter and this one.


	8. Eight: Elaborate Webs

_May 08 2007: Author's Notes: _Moving my work to fiddle with this fiction and get it reposted for those interested in it. This is a combination of the previous chapters of eleven and twelve. I am both working out more plot points than the original had as well as fleshing things out that I liked and getting rid of things I didn't.

_Summary of chapter 7: _The strange pair continued their long trek and avoided dwelling too much on what had happened to them while they were being controlled somewhat. After a day of moving they settled to rest and Kagome woke to find that her travels with the demon lord had been nothing more than a strange and vivid dream. Hearing instead from Inuyasha that she had shot and killed his brother that she had so recently believed was carrying her around subterranean tunnels.

**Chapter Eight:** _Elaborate Webs or Refusal to Believe_

Kagome felt light headed and could hear the blood in her body rushing at the nauseating news that she'd just received, she wanted to feint and allow herself a short moment away from that somber information. More crestfallen than she might expect and confused completely as to how to react to it, fairly numb as she took it in.

"I killed him…" she repeated dispiritedly.

"Yeah." Inuyasha nodded in annoyance at her. "If you could just butt out like you are told and let me handle things then I would have killed him myself and you wouldn't have to worry about it. It's not like he was a nice guy or anything Kagome- no different than any other demon you might slay with that bow of yours. Can we go now?"

She nodded in quiet agreement to him and started gathering her things. _"I couldn't have really killed him could I? I remember twisting the arrow but what about…falling and the pain in my back…and the intensity of when we…we were together. The warmth of sleeping on his tail or the fear when I thought he might leave me in that pitch blackness…it couldn't have just been a dream could it?"_

She finally fell into step next to her other crush…glancing to the clueless half-demon while she tried to separate where reality ended and her dream had begun.

"Inuyasha…I don't remember Sesshomaru dying…or anything else until now, this morning." she said with a frown. "Isn't that a little strange to you?"

The half-demon turned to speak to her when a tangle of branches fell on her from the trees above, making her gasp as she tried to fight at getting free. The half-demon was there with her, cutting some free with his claws as he growled at them. "Let go of Kagome."

"Inuyasha?" she asked curiously when she heard his voice, it didn't sound right.

Then all of a sudden she felt her cheek stinging as if she'd been slapped and she blinked as the powerful dream cleared from her eyes and she heard her name as she tried to refocus them on a silver haired…Sesshomaru. She instantly blushed as she figured out that she'd been having a dream about having a dream and that she was still here in the underground caves with the demon lord.

She glanced around and realized they were in a hallway where she definitely hadn't fallen asleep, there was enough light that she could see the simplistic brown cave rather well and she blinked in confusion.

"What happened?" she asked as she also noted that they were both standing.

"You wandered off in your sleep, I just now caught up with you and managed to wake you. I'd imagine you were having a dream with my useless brother." Sesshomaru answered with a bit more frigid of a tone than usual.

"I had a dream where I woke up and things were like they were before I fell down here. It was so real that I thought…well…that it was real. He yelled at me a little and we argued some like we used to do before he told me…" she hesitated, not wanting to say it aloud. "…I can't really remember. Nothing I would think was really important."

_"That I killed you." _her mind provided where the demon lord couldn't hear her. _"I can't believe that I would actually kill Sesshomaru. I wasn't trying to kill him…just to get him to stop. But everything is okay now…he's not dead…"_

She suddenly wrapped her arms around the taller male to embrace him in relief for his safety after how his 'death' had so managed to effect her before, near tears as she squeezed him. He didn't just shove her away for his own credit, instead settling his hand on the small of her back and watching her strange behavior without much of a reaction.

"You are disturbed for no good reason." he said coolly. "We should keep on our way. I assume that you want to take the path where I will be forced to carry you from lack of sight?"

"I think it's a better idea." she agreed with a nod and drew back, managing to keep the moisture inside her eyes as she did. "Something is just telling me to follow those paths."

He watched her for a long moment. _"Something about that dream of hers really managed to get to her. Memories of the absent Inuyasha? Perhaps he'd been injured somehow in her visions? Nothing for me to worry about - she's my brother's half-human not mine."_

He picked her up and started down the next path in a rush, trying to figure out just what the hell was happening here, the girl seemed lost in her own thoughts and still heavily bothered by whatever she had seen while sleep walking.

_"I should have been relieved to see Inuyasha after I thought this was a dream…instead I was more worried about Sesshomaru. I love Inuyasha don't I? I'm not sure of anything anymore. Sesshomaru saved me again, is he changing too?"_ She stared up toward where she assumed his face had to be in the darkness, wishing she could see him more. _"Even if he's rude sometimes usually he's nicer to me even than Inuyasha was, he holds me closer when he carries me…"_

He had slowed as the picking of his way was more difficult while carrying the girl in his only hand, he glanced back to where she was staring at him, a moment of astonishment given he knew she couldn't see and then more curiosity for what she could be thinking as she watched him. Trusting him completely to keep her safe while they moved which was a compliment and he enjoyed it more than he cared to admit.

_"I like her more than I care to admit." _he thought grimly. _"There is more to this spell than something simple, it's rewriting my personality when it comes to this partial human but just killing her could be more detrimental than not. I don't really want to kill her but this rare magic isn't the only thing holding me back - it's seemed to grasp my mind less than it has hers."_

The two left each other in troubled silence while they moved, reaching another cave sort of opening with more fresh water though not quite as large of a display, having a small stream and a small pool of water before it continued off into another cave way. The air seemed fresher here so that was a sign they were moving toward areas closer to a surface opening.

"Finally." Kagome breathed as she was released to walk on her own in the pale illumination, moving toward the clear pool and bending down to cup her hands for several drinks, much thirstier than she had realized over her day of having nearly nothing to drink.

Sesshomaru took the time to check the perimeter and seemed content that there were no unexpected guests and only the one other exit this time, eventually moving to bend and get himself a little water as well.

"Not much to use for a fire again." He observed. "Do you think you can last another day without cooked food?"

"Yeah." she nodded in quick answer to that. "I don't mind that nearly as much as not being able to bathe. Would you mind if I went ahead and did that?"

He shook his head to her question. "No, go ahead, I'll be close. Scream if anything happens."

She nodded with a small smile toward that request, waiting until he was away to pull out all of her things for a bath, settling her blanket over the root of some sort of plant that was hanging from the ceiling, using the makeshift curtain as a wall to get undressed behind. Then she moved to the water with her soaps and things…getting in.

The warmth of the hot spring like water washing over her sore muscles and helping to cleanse her spirit as much as her body as she took the time to enjoy the relaxing feeling. She didn't take as long as she normally might, her stomach rumbling at her hunger from not eating throughout the day while they were running. She dried herself off with the blanket as she was without a towel and left it to hang and dry itself while she redressed, by the time she walked back around Sesshomaru was back - likely his hearing and other better scenes telling him when she was done before she had to let him know.

"Would you like one of my bars? You haven't eaten for days, you have to be hungry." Kagome offered a granola bar toward him as she pointed out the obvious. "Even demons have to eat right?"

"I don't need to eat human food." He shook his head at her, pulling free the belt of his outfit before moving behind the sort of shade she'd hung up. "Don't concern yourself, I can last much longer before I'll need to seek sustenance."

"Right…" she answered, noticing that the blanket just make a silhouette of the person behind it, so she could particularly see him undressing while her face practiced it's best impression of turning into the color of a tomato.

_"My god, I hope he isn't going to just sit around without clothes today…I had an extra outfit so I washed mine but…his clothes he doesn't have more than the single set." _She did her best to concentrate on chewing her food instead of thinking about Sesshomaru naked. _"We need to be more careful. It seems safe here but that just makes it worse on us…I didn't start making out with him last night but I still don't want that to happen again."_

He noted her extreme embarrassment as he floated into the water, letting himself soak as he watched her fidget. A mischievous grin coming to his face for a split second before clearing back into emotionless ness.

"Kagome," he asked coolly, "Could you retrieve the soap for me? I left it by the blanket there."

_"Shouldn't demon lords have better memories?" _she asked herself bitterly at being forced to move closer, quite sure despite his tone that he was doing this to her on purpose. She didn't look at him and found the aforementioned soap without doing so.

"Just toss it to me." he commented calmly, waiting a little and then blinking when she just threw it over a shoulder. He caught it but kept up with his small game by letting out a grunt as if she'd hit him with it.

He was rubbing his forehead when she gave him the glance he expected out of the little act, not sure why he was playing such games but still amused by them.

_"Oh god." _she thought to herself, more embarrassed as she dug for something else she could eat. _"I hit him in the head. Real smooth Kagome."_

"I'm sorry." she apologized while her face took an even deeper shade of red. "I didn't meant to hit you."

"Don't concern yourself." he replied with his usual devoid tone. Giving up the games to concentrate on his own bath while he let the girl eat in as much peace as she would allow herself to have.

She seemed ready to jump out of her skin when he sat down next to her, letting out a sigh of relief when she noted that he'd dried himself off enough to at least put on his pants, she was still staring more than she should at his muscular chest but at least he wasn't showing her more than was appropriate - he was on the line but not crossing it.

"So, how much further do you think it will be to the surface?" she asked, forcing herself to look up at his golden eyes and watch them instead of his chest, resisting a strange urge to reach out and trace the magenta lines on his regal face.

"A day or two from where we are now at the very most I'd think." he replied with a shrug, he was watching the cave they would be leaving from the next day. "Will you have enough food? I would think you are getting short."

"I still have a few days worth of stuff if we find a place where I can cook. Otherwise it'll get a little thin yeah." she answered honestly. "But I'll make it if it's just a couple days. What happens once we get out of here?"

"I'd imagine we would return to our lives, if we are separated the spell they cast will lose effect and eventually fall apart." he answered her calmly. "It would likely be best for both of us."

"Oh…" she hadn't expected that answer from him. "but what if that doesn't work? Shouldn't we find someone that knows about this sort of magic and get what information we can on it?"

"I wouldn't figure you'd want to linger in my company given your relationship with Inuyasha." he commented, glancing back toward her to fully watch her responses to his comments.

"I do what needs to be done." she replied "Inuyasha would understand why it was needed. It's a search for answers that could involve my well being and he wouldn't argue with that."

Sesshomaru was skeptical but didn't make another insult toward his brother. "I suppose it could end up that way. I have scented some other creatures in these caves though so I figure that we'll run across one of them before long and hopefully we'll be able to get an answer out of them. I still think Naraku had something to do with this bizarre attempt to control us."

"I agree." Kagome nodded to emphasize it. "Thank you for agreeing to stick with me through this. I know that I'm probably a large bother for you."

The comment sort of surprised him. He didn't really consider her as much of an inconvenience as he probably would have before this whole strange encounter started. He found himself shaking his head at her and didn't mind as much, something about her had touched him in a way similar to how Rin had but to a much more intimate level. It might have been caused by this strange magic but he wasn't willing to just completely fight it just yet, the girl had been a victim as well.

"You aren't a burden Kagome." he said to her seriously. "Just because things have been strange doesn't mean your company hasn't helped."

_"I'm getting myself trapped in this damned web the more I let this happen." _he told himself with a mental sigh. Then she smiled brightly at the kind words he'd given. _"but what a creature to get myself entangled with…"_

He had to admit that this was a very new form of travel and he figured that it was the spell affecting even his thoughts and reactions when it came to the half-human girl but as she was the only thing that was earning such a place he was more willing to live with it. He couldn't manage to hold the optimism that she often exuded…this seemed to just be the beginning of this elaborate web.

**End Chapter.**

Mmm, I like this better than the original but I'm still sorta questionable as to if this isn't another chapter I might rewrite again at a later date. Anyway, I need to hop into bed soon. Stayed up late working on this again. Heh, I gotta stop doing that.

_-Aura_

To my reviewers:

_Sesshoumarukagomeforever23_ - Here you go.

_Kzb637_ - I'd say I'd fixed that but now you have to wait a bit again.

_Shae_ - Yeah so he wasn't dead, but I thought it was a dramatic detail to add. I couldn't kill my romantic male lead after all.

_Amber001_ - Glad to hear you liked the story then, hope you continue to enjoy it now.


	9. 9: Caught in the Web or Love Triangles

_May 10 2007: Author's Notes: _I'm combining a couple more chapters into this one. The previous 13 and 14 because they were far to short separately last time and I wanted the time to mess with what I did.

_Summary of chapter 8: _After finding out that she'd only dreamed that she'd killed Sesshomaru and thought she was dreaming about reality - (confusing huh?) Kagome continued her travel with the demon lord in the tunnels they'd fallen into and both of the two noticed that something or someone was affecting their feelings toward one another.

**Chapter 9:**_ Caught in the Web or Love Triangles_

"Sesshomaru?" she finally asked softly while they were sitting at the small camp they had made.

"Yes?" he glanced toward her at his name and waited.

"W…what will you do when this is all over?" she broke eye contact and looked at the small pool instead.

"Didn't we just talk about that?" he replied, a little confused at her sudden odd behavior.

"I mean…when we figure out what's wrong and everything else. What will you do then?" she explained, her voice having grown much softer in her bashfulness.

"Return to my lands." he said matter-of-factly. "Why?"

"Oh…just curious…I guess it seems like we've been down her longer than we have." she rambled a little.

_"She's disappointed." _he realized, then said aloud. "What would you have me do?"

She glanced back over to him but whatever her answer would be it seemed to fade when she met his eyes, as if suddenly afraid of whatever she'd thought to say.

"What?" he prodded gently, shifting a little closer to where she was sitting so it would be easier to pick up the scents she was giving off.

She watched him move, wetting her lips but then biting her lip and remaining quiet. _"How can I ask him to stay with me? He only left me alive because it would be incontinent to kill me, we're only like this because someone else is playing with our hearts."_

He leaned closer, but paused before he got to her, watching her as he waited for some sort of answer. Kagome's eyes softened at the gesture and she reached up a hand to touch his cheek, freezing him in place as her hand stroked the side of his face softly, absently tracing the magenta lines along his cheeks.

"I…I was going to say…'stay with me'." she finally told him nervously.

Amber eyes widened a little, one of a few rare times his face betrayed emotion. He didn't pull away from her but nor did he move, trapped in her gorgeous blue eyes.

_"Circles within circles." _he thought mildly as his attention remained on the partially human girl.

"He should move away…wait? Should I move away instead? He shouldn't just sit close like that…especially with his shirt off."

She hovered near him on the edge of a desire she couldn't completely comprehend, knowing it wasn't completely her and afraid of the want that she felt for him. Perhaps because of what had happened before, her control already on a thread again as she watched him.

"We should…" Sesshomaru's comment was barely a whisper and he cursed himself as he couldn't manage to think of anything else that they could do around the small camp as an excuse to move away from this infuriatingly enticing woman.

"…get some rest." Kagome finished for him.

Yet despite the comments neither of them made a move, there was nothing to interrupt them or really endanger them here. Still, fear kept them from moving forward, longing keeping them from moving back.

_"Someone has weaved this web a little too well. We need to stop this before they get whatever they are after." _He thought to himself idly with his other thoughts, his body not so willing to listen to his brain. _"She's the innocent one…shouldn't she back away?"_

But being innocent meant doing naïve things.

She leaned in to close the distance and brush her lips against his…she figured just a kiss couldn't hurt. He shuddered a little at the teasing and resisted the urge to pull her close even as she scooted a little nearer, the feeling on his lips lingering with a soft but vibrant passion. He was losing the battle as she continued to press against him, his hands rising to trace her hips and move slowly up her sides.

Though when he did touch her waist she pulled back a little with a squeak of shock, realizing that she'd made a mistake by closing the short distance between them. She didn't mind his hands on her nearly as much as she should and she found that when she went to lay down in what she thought was a clever escape that he'd followed along with her, effectively 'pinning' her to the ground.

She blinked and knew she needed to stop it before it went further, but then he started to kiss her behind the ear and along the neck, making her body react how she never thought was possible by something that simple, she moaned underneath him and both of them were quickly losing to whatever spell had been put on them.

"Kagome…" he managed to whisper, his brain foggy from her alluring scent.

He was asking for permission for something. Her own mind not complying to her demands in the circumstances…what was he asking permission for again? Did it matter? She never managed to compute the question he'd pressed her with.

"May I mark you as my mate?"

She didn't really care, she just nodded to whatever the question had been, craning her head back to give him more access to her skin there. He was getting ready to go through with it when they both were drug back to reality by the sound of splashing getting closer to them. Sesshomaru instantly turned defensive and pulled her close to his side protectively as he jumped up to see whatever threat was before him.

"Inuyasha…" he muttered angrily. "You never can stay out of my business."

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" the half-demon screamed at his brother, drawing the Tessaiga as his eyes burned in hatred.

The full demon just growled in return, his eyes starting to tint with crimson as he watched the enemy, pressing the miko close to him as opposed to letting her go.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome finally caught up to what she was seeing. "What are you doing here?"

"What does it look like idiot. I'm rescuing you." He yelled back. "What the hell were you doing with Sesshomaru?"

That question made her turn a brighter red as she realized what it must of looked like, what it was.  
"She's not in need of rescue." the demon lord announced coolly. "Get out of here."

"Let go of her." Inuyasha snapped back. "How dare you touch Kagome like that!"

_"What do I say?" _Kagome thought frantically. _"They're fighting over me…but…Sesshomaru didn't do anything…I'm glad Inuyasha stopped us and all but how could I possibly explain it?"_

"You are mistaken as ever. This is not a time to press your luck." the deep voice promised, his eyes still growing a deeper red in his anger at the interruption and perceived threat to Kagome.

"STOP IT!" Kagome's outburst managing to gain their attention before either attacked the other.

"Inuyasha." she said softly. "Sesshomaru didn't do anything."

"He was all over you." the half-demon snapped back. "Or weren't you paying attention. He was about to mark you as his mate by the looks of things…god you are a dense woman."

She glanced to Sesshomaru when she felt his grip tighten on her protectively again and for the first time made note of what seemed to be blood leaking into the gold of his eyes.

_"He's angry…he's defending me." _Kagome thought with surprise. _"Yet…I feel so safe with him…I'm sorry Inuyasha."_

"Seshsomaru…" she whispered softly until she managed to get him to glance at her. "…please calm down…"

At the request and her voice the lord of the west's eyes returned to their normal sheen but he regarded his brother with no kindness. She gently started to pull herself away and then he looked at her fully for the first time since Inuyasha had interrupted their intimate scene.

"It's all right." she assured him with a nod.

He hesitantly put her back on her feet then, watching her animatedly and nearly missing the dodge out of the reach of Inuyasha's sword a moment after they'd let go of one another. His claws immediately began to glow an eerie green, he was losing his patience.

"Sit boy!"

There was a crash as Inuyasha slammed into the floor, stopping the fight as the demon lord stared at the face-planted half-demon in front of him, a lip threatening to quick upward.

"What the hell did you do that for!?" Inuyasha snapped as he jumped up, yelling at Kagome.

"Cause you don't know how to listen!" Kagome yelled back. "Nothing happened that I didn't either initiate or allow!"

That statement had all eyes on her yet again and she blushed a little as she realized the implications of what she'd just said.

"What do you mean?" the half demon asked in half-shock/half-hurt. "You wanted him to mark you? Have you completely lost your mind?"

A warning growl came from his brother at the insult.

"You are such a jerk!" she argued with him. "That isn't what I meant."

"Sure…okay…anyway, where the hell have you been?"

"Sesshomaru helped me after we woke up down here." she answered, smiling a little toward the full demon. "I would have died if he hadn't helped me."

"You do realize I've been looking for you!" He wanted to cry but chose to scream instead. "Though apparently I'm not needed. I woke up with the shards near me and I've been searching for you ever since then. I picked up your scent a day ago in a large room like this one…but I guess you've been more concerned with making out with Sesshomaru!"

He was very angry himself.

"I…I'm glad you are all right." she answered, still feeling horrible for what was happening. She should be happy to see Inuyasha but a lot of her feelings for him seemed to be gone.

He paused a little then scoffed at her. "Yeah, that's why you've got his scent all over you. Just what else has happened in the past few days?"

Sesshomaru moved closer to Kagome, narrowing his eyes when Inuyasha yelled at him again. "I told you to stay away from her!"

"Listen Inuyasha." she demanded. "Something is controlling us…some sort of strange spell. It keeps making us do things we wouldn't do. Someone carved spells onto our bodies and it's making us go a little crazy sometimes."

Inuyasha eyed her but knew she wouldn't lie about something like that. "Fine…then now I'll be here and you two can part ways. Then nothing like this will happen again."

"No…we need to work together until we find out what's wrong." Kagome shook her head.

"We need to speak human." Sesshomaru addressed her harshly enough that she wanted to scream at the situation but nodded a little. The full demon wandered down a path and she hugged Inuyasha before heading after him.

"Don't you two start anything!" he called after them crudely.

"Sit boy!" was the reply for his trouble.

He slammed into the ground and started cursing while she caught up with the full demon, staring at him with a little sadness in her eyes. "What's wrong?"

He glanced to her and let his eyes melt a little from their usual icy stare. "The half-breed is right. This is a dangerous game we are playing staying together like this. Return to the dog where you belong."

She winced when he put it like that. "I didn't mean…I…"

She started to run off but as she turned he caught her arm.

"You didn't mean?" he was back to his unreadable self so she wasn't sure what to think of it.

"What else could I have said to stop the fighting? I…I don't want you to leave until we at least figure this out…" she bit her lip and he noted that she was on the verge of tears.

He finally nodded a little, pulling her closer and smelling her hair as he nuzzled into it. She smiled and kissed his cheek before whispering. "Play along."

She slapped him a moment later and screamed. "You are a jerk too, you both are horrible."

She winked at him before storming off.

He blinked in shock after her, it hadn't hurt but he wasn't sure if he should be insulted or not as she walked off on him. _"What if my brother hadn't interrupted us? A half-human mate? No…Kagome as a mate. That is not a disagreeable thought and I know that it probably should be. What is this strange sort of feeling? We need to get this spell removed so I can get these foreign thoughts removed from my mind."_

**End Chapter**

Whee, I liked the remake of these chapters much much more than the originals. I'm pretty proud of them so I'm glad to add this chapter to my re-write of the story. So far so good. Thanks for the support folks.

_-Aura_

To my reviewers:

_Kzb637_ - Glad you enjoy it so much. Hope you continue to like it.

_Shae_ - Yes he was alive and now he has to deal with a little love triangle…gotta love drama.

_Angel Maiden _- Here you go, more story for ya.

_Sesshomarukagomeforever23 _- Continued.


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